Darkness Comes on the Wings of a Storm
by tthorn
Summary: Harry Potter finds something he did not expect to find, nor did it expect to find him, but what he found will forever change the course of human history. Dark HP HP/LOTR crossover
1. Chapter 1

Darkness Comes On the Wings of a Storm

Chapter 1

Darkness has always existed in the heart of man and will forever more linger in that dwelling. Some try to resist it with all their might, fighting instead for goodness and truth but the darkness finds other ways to take their souls; lust, greed, envy and pride. It is more than a person, it is an idea and ideas cannot be chained or destroyed.

Man is its creature, yet not its slave for it is possible to resist just not forever.

******* DCOTWOS **********

"I need to find a place where twenty-eight people can practise Defence Against the Dark Arts without being discovered by any of the teachers. Especially," Harry clenched his hand on the book, so that the scars shone pearly white, "Professor Umbridge."

He expected the elf's smile to vanish, his ears to droop; he expected him to say it was impossible, or else that he would try to find somewhere, but his hopes were not high. What he had not expected was for Dobby to give a little skip, his ears waggling cheerfully, and clap his hands together.

"Dobby knows the perfect place, sir!" he said happily. "Dobby heard tell of it from the other house-elves when he came to Hogwarts, sir. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, sir, or else as the Room of Requirement!"

"Why?" said Harry curiously.

"Because it is a room that a person can only enter," said Dobby seriously, "when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, sir," said the elf, dropping his voice and looking guilty, "when Winky has been very drunk; he has hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir….and Dobby knows Mr Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and…"

"And if you really needed a bathroom," said Harry, suddenly remembering something Dumbledore had said at the Yule Ball the previous Christmas, "would it fill itself with chamber pots?"

"Dobby expects so, sir," said Dobby, nodding earnestly. "It is a most amazing room, sir."

"How many people know about it?" said Harry, sitting up straight in his chair.

"Very few, sir. Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, sir, but often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, sir."

"It sounds brilliant," said Harry, his heart racing. "It sounds perfect, Dobby. When can you show me where it is?"

"Any time, Harry Potter, sir," said Dobby, looking delighted at Harry's enthusiasm. "We could go now, if you like!"

For a moment Harry was tempted to go with Dobby. He was halfway out of his seat, intending to hurry upstairs for his Invisibility Cloak when, not for the first time, a voice very much like Hermione's whispered in his ear: reckless. It was, after all, very late, he was exhausted, and had Snape's essay to finish.

For a moment only though because soon the boyish enthusiasm overcame him and he bounded up the stairs and into the dorm. Inside he found the rest of his roommates deep asleep, he considered waking Ron but then decided not as he would be grumpy and it was hard enough to fit under the cloak as it was.

Taking his cloak out from his trunk he hurried back downstairs to where Dobby was waiting for him in the common room.

******* DCOTWOS **********

"Hold it," Harry warned, unfolding the piece of parchment at the top of the last staircase, tapping it with his wand and muttering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

A map of Hogwarts appeared on the blank surface of the parchment. Tiny black moving dots, labelled with names, showed where various people were.

"Filch is on the second floor," said Harry, holding the map close to his eyes, "and Mrs Norris is on the fourth, and Umbridge is in her office."

They hurried along the corridor to the place Dobby had described to Harry, a stretch of blank wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

"OK," said Harry quietly, while a moth-eaten troll paused in his relentless clubbing of the would-be ballet teacher to watch them. "So what do we do now, Dobby?"

"Harry Potter sir, should walk past this bit of wall three times thinking of what Harry Potter wishes to find. Dobby must go now, Mr Harry Potter sir," the elf said, bowing as he did so.

"Thank you Dobby, you are a true friend!" Harry said.

Dobby squeaked with delight and looked like he was about to pee himself but fortunately managed to pop away before he did so.

Harry took a deep breath before starting to pace in front of the section of wall Dobby had indicated, turning sharply at the window just beyond the blank stretch of wall, then at the man-sized vase on its other side.

We need somewhere to learn to fight, he thought. Just give us a place to practise, somewhere they can't find us.

A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. Harry reached out, seized the brass handle, pulled open the door and led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that Harry was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody's office.

Harry laughed, it had worked it had actually worked. He had doubted Dobby, he knew he shouldn't have but with all the evidence of Dobby's previous ideas; the rogue bludger, the barring of the entrance to the platform and the fiasco with the cake at the Dursleys. Well it didn't leave him much to be trusted on, yet this time he had delivered.

Then a thought hit Harry a thought that he liked.

Stepping back out of the room he began his pacing again though this time with a different purpose in mind.

I need a way to defeat Voldemort, he thought, I need a way to help defeat Voldemort.

Again the door reappeared in the wall and again Harry entered. This time was different though, for instead of a spacious well lit room this room was dark, not pitch dark, but night dark. The walls were lined with a black stone, marble probably, that was polished to such a degree that it looked like sheet glass and glistened, throwing reflections of the room's little light all over the place, giving it a mystic feel.

An object caught Harry's attention as in the centre of the room upon a raised dais there stood a dark black pillar, that rose to chest height made from the same black stone as the walls. The top looked like it had been shorn clear off and on top of it were two objects.

A black ball of a similar type to that of the room, much like the crystal balls Harry had seen in the Divination classroom. And a golden ring that seemed to sing to Harry's soul.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Would like to draw people's attention to my new story, a crossover between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. Don't worry this isn't being abandoned and I hope to give all my stories an update this weekend.**

* * *

Chapter 2

Harry walked towards the podium with slow, methodical steps. The song in his ears seemed to be getting louder and louder, more and more overpowering, until it reached a level that Harry knew there was nothing he could do to resist it.

He reached out and took the ring.

As soon as it contacted with his body, it became to burn with a fierce intensity that at first scared Harry but soon he began to revel it in. Strength flowed through his body, strength that he had never felt in his entire life. He knew he had made the right decision. This would help him defeat Voldemort.

It seemed like a natural reaction for Harry to almost without thinking slip the little golden band of metal into his pocket. Once he had done so he carefully patted his pocket to ensure that it was still where he wanted it and then reached out and touched the ball of black stone.

Instantly Harry's mind was sucked out of his head and down into the ball, much as with the Pensieve Harry had used in Dumbledore's study.

_Inside the Ball_

Harry looked around. He was standing in a room that he didn't recognise, certainly it was a wizard's home and not just that but a rich wizard's home because it was grand and impressive and Harry could see a couple of house elves working away in the opposite end of the room

A door opened and Harry immediately tried to duck behind the furniture but when the man who entered took no notice of him despite Harry still being in plain view, it was clear that they couldn't see him. The man who had entered stood by the door, holding it open for someone to enter and enter that person did a couple of moments later.

Lord Voldemort strode into the room, followed closely behind by both Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew.

"Milord," Malfoy said, bowing low as he began to speak, "I hope that you have found our hospitality to your satisfaction."

Malfoy's house, that's were Voldemort and his Death Eaters were hiding. Harry couldn't wait until he could get out so that he could tell Dumbledore, but decided to stay incase there was anything else that he could learn.

"Your kindess has been noted, Lucius," Voldemort said in his cool sibilant tone, "and I will ensure that it does not go unrewarded."

Peter Pettigrew chose this moment as the one to pipe up, wringing his little hands worriedly as he spoke.

"Master, what about the Potter boy?"

Now Harry was really listening, they were talking about him. He was glad he had decided not to disappear off to report to Dumbledore.

"What about him?" Voldemort said, looking down at Pettigrew with disgust, "my plans go as they were supposed to, he is receiving the visions that I am sending and soon will be ready to retrieve the orb."

Harry paused, horrified for a moment. The visions he was getting, they were coming from Voldemort. Voldemort was able to get into his head, could he control Harry through it? Make him attack his friends? Betray Order secrets?

A shout from the room caused Harry to turn his attention back to Voldemort and his companions.

"Rowle!" Lucius had shouted down the corridor.

A lumbering man, big and from the looks of it quite clumsy appeared at the door. Coming in he bent low and kissed the hem of Voldemort's cloak.

"How goes the plans for the assault on Azkaban," Voldemort asked.

Rowle exchanged glances with Malfoy, "they are going well, my lord, the prison should be yours by the end of the holidays."

"Good, good," Voldemort said staring at Rowle, "you know what will happen if you disappoint me, Rowle."

"Yes my lord," Rowle said bowing his way all the way out of the door.

_Back in the Real World_

Harry felt himself slowly slipping from the picture and awoke moments later back inside the Room of Requirement. For a couple of moments he stood their gasping, thinking of what he had seen. Voldemort was possessing him and was planning to attack Azkaban. Despite Dumbledore's treatment towards Harry this year he needed to know this so he could warn the Ministry. But the Ministry wouldn't listen would they.

Harry returned his attention to the ball. He could help but wonder what it was, for it wasn't a crystal ball for they are see-through where as this one looks like it contains a mass of swirling black smoke.

What was he going to do? If he went to Dumbledore as he knew he should then the Headmaster would want to know how he had seen what he had seen and could confiscate both the ball and the ring.

Knowing he should do it, Harry wrapped up the ball in his cloak and headed out of the Room of Requirement, making sure that Flitch or Umbridge wasn't around on the Marauder's Map. Heading down to where the gargoyle was that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's Office, Harry realised he didn't know the password.

He was beginning to panic, sure he was about to be caught by someone, when Professor McGonagall appeared behind him.

"Mr Potter!" She said scandalised, "what are you doing out of your bed at this hour?"

"I need to see Professor Dumbledore!" Harry said quickly, "Voldemort's going to attack Azkaban!"

Harry saw something change in her stern expression and soon he was pushed out of the way as the witch faced the gargoyle.

"Fizzing Whizzbee," said Professor McGonagall.

The gargoyle sprang to life and leapt aside; the wall behind it split in two to reveal a stone staircase that was moving continually upwards like a spiral escalator. They stepped on to the moving stairs; the wall closed behind them with a thud and they were moving upwards in tight circles until they reached the highly polished oak door with the brass knocker shaped like a griffin.

Though it was now well past midnight there were voices coming from inside the room, a positive babble of them. It sounded as though Dumbledore was entertaining at least a dozen people.

Professor McGonagall rapped three times with the griffin knocker and the voices ceased abruptly as though someone had switched them all off. The door opened of its own accord and Professor McGonagall led Harry inside.

"Headmaster," she said, "Harry wants to speak to you about something, he says Azkaban is going to be attacked."

She had Dumbledore's attention now.

"Is this true, Harry?" he asked, looking at him over his glasses.

Harry nodded curtly, before going and unravelling his cloak to reveal the stone. Dumbledore leaned close to examine it and from behind him Harry could hear McGonagall's gasp.

"Albus, is that what I think it is?" she asked.

"A Seeing Stone," Dumbledore said, lost in thought, "they were thought to be legend yet here we have one. Where did you find this, Harry?"

Harry told his story, though being careful to leave out any mention of the ring that even now was in his pocket. He stood there waiting as the two adults digested what he had told them.

"What are we going to do with it, Albus?" McGonagall asked.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment for leaning back and looking at Harry closely.

"Touch it, Harry," he said, "like you did last time."

Conscious of the numerous intense watchful looks he was receiving, as the portraits of the old Headmasters and Headmistresses had now woken up and were whispering to each other frantically. Again as he touched it, the feeling of entering a Pensieve hit Harry as he descended into darkness.

__

Inside the Ball

Opening his eyes Harry saw he was again somewhere else; a small glade in a forest with trees that seemed to stretch into the sky, beautiful and magnificent. A figure stepped into the clearing and Harry had to restrain a gasp although he had no need for like the other scene it seemed that they couldn't hear him.

She was beautiful, tall and beautiful those were the first impressions Harry got of her. The figure had long golden hair, rich and radiant, and was clad in a robe of white that seemed to shimmer in the evening light.

Going over to a small basin situated in the centre of the grove she started to pour water from a jug into it. As she did so she began to speak.

"_Three Rings__ for the __Elven__-kings under the sky,  
__Seven__ for the __Dwarf-lords__ in their halls of stone,  
Nine for __Mortal Men__ doomed to die,  
One for the __Dark Lord__ on his dark throne  
In the Land of __Mordor__ where the Shadows lie.  
__One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,__  
__One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them__  
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."_

Harry's hand slipped to the ring in his pocket. Somehow he just knew that this was the ring that the song was about, why else would the Seeing Stone show him the scene in front of him.

The figure looked up and caught Harry's eye, causing his heart to immediately jump to his throat. How could she see him?

"How are you, sorcerer that you can see past the spells upon this place?" she said, in a calm voice that did nothing to disguise the feeling of raw power Harry could feel behind the words.

He tried to answer but any words he tried to speak seemed to turn to dust in his mouth. His head pierced with pain as if someone tried to force their way in and with an inhuman scream he ripped himself from that place fleeing as far as he could.

_Back in the Real World_

Harry awoke again in the Headmaster's office, though instead of standing as he had been before he was now lying down on the ground with both the Headmaster and his Head of House kneeling beside him with worried expressions on their faces.

"Voldemort again?" Dumbledore asked with a worried expression on his face.

Harry wordlessly shook his head and had to wait a couple of moments before he was able to speak.

"I was in a forest," he said quickly, "I don't where but there were lots of trees that I haven't seen before and there was a woman, she could see me, and I felt a pain in my head as I left."

Dumbledore's expression turned from worried to extremely troubled.

"To see the bearer of a seeing stone," he said, deep in thought, "means this woman possesses immense power, for not even I could do the same I believe. And to be able to perform legilimency on such a person…There is also the question of why the stone showed you this? They don't show things of no significance!"

"Legilimency?" Harry asked, never having heard of such an expression before.

"The art of reading another wizard's mind," Dumbledore replied, "a crude explanation but it's the easiest way of putting it."

"She read my mind?" Harry asked horrified.

Dumbledore shook his head, "no not quite, rather I imagine she could see some of your thoughts at the moment she performed the spell but otherwise your mind was your own."

"Is there any defense against it?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully, "yes it is an art called occlumency. I had thought to have Severus instruct you in the art after Christmas but perhaps that might need to be sped up."

"Snape!" Harry said in a voice that registered his disgust at the idea.

"Professor Snape, Harry!" Dumbledore reprimand him gently, "but we will speak on this subject at another time, at the moment we must decide what to do with this!"

"Hide it!" Professor McGonagall said immediately, "hide where it will never be found by You-Know-Who or any other Dark Lord!"

Dumbledore sighed and cut Harry off with a wave of his hand as said student was about to argue fiercely against his Head of House' proposal.

"As much as I would like to do so, Minerva," he said, "I do not believe that it is an option in this case. The perils of it getting found are not something I would wish to risk and that is before we consider the benefits of such a powerful object."

"What should we do then?" McGonagall asked, wrapping her shawl around her.

"We must keep it," Dumbledore said gravely, "use it to our advantage if we can."

McGonagall looked around the clutter that filled the Headmaster's office, "you'll keep it here? Safe?"

Dumbledore shook his head and looked at Harry. McGonagall began to try and protest but was waved off as Dumbledore stared at Harry intently.

"Harry, there is no point me keeping it here," he said, "such items are very particular about who wields them and I fear I do not have the ability. Should I allow you to keep it, will you do so? Secretly, without telling anyone even your friends, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger?"

Harry could only nod dumbly, and so Dumbledore continued.

"This is no powerless magical item," he said still staring at him, "should Voldemort get his hands on it he would be able to see anywhere he wished, spy on anyone he wished, see through any charm or ward that he wished!"

Harry got what the Headmaster was hinting there, that even Grimmauld Place would be visible to the person who wielded the Seeing Stone. Picking up the glass ball Dumbledore carefully placed it in Harry's hands.

"Find somewhere secret to keep it, somewhere safe," Dumbledore said gravely, "I am trusting you with this Harry, do not let me down!"

******* DCOTWOS **********

Harry was back in the Room of Requirement, this was the place he had chosen to store the Seeing Stone. This new room would act as his headquarters; the place where he would keep the stone and from whence he would plan against Umbridge and the Ministry.

His new headquarters were nice, it was split into three different sections though still one room. One corner was covered in bookcases which were filled with old books and tomes of spells, as well as having a couple of armchairs and a desk oak desk from which Harry could work. Another corner of the room was a small potions room, with several cauldrons and stacks of potions ingredients. The rest of the room was a huge duelling arena with several clockwork dummies which could be used as targets for practising against.

Originally Harry had been unsure about using this place as the Headquarters for the group that Hermione was proposing because he was afraid that anyone might steal things in the room that he wanted kept there as well as afraid that Umbridge might find out about the room and block it off. Fortunately he had discovered that the Room was able to create passages into all the common rooms, reducing the chance of people being caught out on their way to meetings and allowing him to order the portraits guarding such entrances to only allow certain people through.

A large cabinet sat in the study corner of his room and in was into this that Harry carefully placed the Seeing Stone, before asking the room to secure it properly. Just as Harry shut the door he remembered the ring.

Slipping it out of the pocket Harry again marvelled about the feeling coming from the small band of metal. It seemed to sing to him, tell him to put it on, slip it onto his finger. Without realising it Harry realised his hand was already moving and the ring was slipping onto his finger.

As soon as it was on Harry saw the whole world covered in a slight grey hazing. Not only that but Harry could see webs of slowing light running through the walls and indeed all over the place. It took him a couple of moments before he realised that these were the feylines, the absorbed magically energy, energy that had been absorbed through hundreds of years of magical use. It was as Harry raised his hand to remove the ring from his finger that he saw it, or rather saw through it. Harry was invisible. He could see his hand's outline and it looked slightly pinkish but he could still see the floor through it.

Harry grinned. Umbridge wouldn't know what hit her.

******* DCOTWOS **********

The first meeting of the defence group had been sorted, Harry had arranged everything although with some help from Hermione. Detailed instructions had been given about the entering of the room from their respective common rooms and so now Harry hoped that everyone was on board and no one was stupid enough to get themselves caught.

Harry had refused to show Hermione and Ron where they would be practising much to their ire but he knew they would be the first to arrive anyway. He had decided not to tell anyone of the true power of the room in case one of them told anyone else or started to use it on a regular basis. As far as Harry was concerned this was his room, and he was going to make damn sure it stayed that way.

Hermione and Ron arrived as Harry was putting the final touches to the room and making sure the Seeing Stone was hidden away. A knock on the door that lead up from the Gryffindor common room was the first thing that alerted Harry to their arrival. He waited for a moment waiting for them to enter before he remembered the security arrangements he had put in place on the doors.

"Come in!"

The two of them came out of the door and looked around the room in surprise. Harry had to grin at the look on Hermione's face, she probably had not been very optimistic about his arranging abilities.

"These will be good when we're practising Stunning," said Ron enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.

"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

Another knock on the same door that Ron and Hermione had come through distracted her excited ramblings. After Harry called them in Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean entered the room and looked around in surprise.

"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"

Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the main door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him.

'Well,' said Harry, slightly nervously. 'This is the place we've found for practice sessions, from now on this is where we will be meeting. Any problems?"

Nobody raised any objection and there was a round of mutterings in the negative.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and….." He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

Harry half expected his stomach to do a back-flip, but it chose to remain still. He was a little annoyed about Hermione asking the question, how else would be the leader if not him?

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So….everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly. Harry half grimaced, he hoped that now he was leader he would be allowed to continue without Hermione trying to take control every couple of seconds.

Harry was just about to continue when he saw Hermione had her hand up yet again. "And….what now ,Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defence Association?" said Cho. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the DA's good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

There was a good deal of appreciative murmuring and laughter at this.

'All in favour of the DA?' said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count.

At that point Harry interrupted, "as far as I was aware Hermione I had just been appointed leader!" he said with raised eyebrows.

His friend looked a little put out, "ohh sorry, Harry! I was just trying to help!"

"I know, Hermione, I know" Harry said, "but we cannot call it Dumbledore's Army!"

There was a round of murmurings and some discontented faces at this. Ginny as well as Hermione was now looking put out.

"Why not?" asked Smith aggressively, he probably didn't care about the name but just wanted to confront Harry.

"Because I have no wish to end up in Azkaban should we be caught!" Harry snapped back.

He took a deep breath before explaining, "as Ginny rightly said this is the Ministry's greatest fear, doing so would discredit both me and Dumbledore enough that they could ship us off to Azkaban on charges of treason."

"Why would it discredit you and Dumbledore?" Fred or George asked confused.

"Why would it discredit us that we are training school children into an army, I don't know?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"But it's not like that!" Ginny objected.

Harry sighed, "it's how the Ministry will portray it and so how the Daily Prophet will announce it and therefore how the wizarding public will hear it!"

There was a still a great deal of muttering and some angry faces, many of those present saw this as their way to strike back at the Ministry. It was at that moment Susan Bones piped up.

"Harry's right!" she said, "just because it isn't called Dumbledore's Army doesn't mean that isn't what it could be!"

Her support strengthened Harry's argument and already he could hear whispers agreeing with him, Susan's aunt was known to be high in the Ministry and so her niece would know how the Ministry worked.

"So what should we call it then?" Colin Creevey asked.

Everyone looked at Harry as if expecting an answer, an answer he knew he would have to give for that was the role of a leader.

"The Phoenix!" Harry said, "that way people won't think we are referring to an organisation if we are overheard."

That caused a buzz of conversation and Harry could tell most people liked it. Hermione and the Weasleys liked it as well because they knew it was a partial declaration of loyalty to Dumbledore and the Order.

Hermione got to her feet and pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters:

THE PHOENIX

"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practising then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful….."

"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else.

"OK," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all these eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practise."

It felt very odd to be issuing instructions, but not nearly as odd as seeing them followed. Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. Predictably, Neville was left partnerless.

"You can practise with me," Harry told him. "Right….on the count of three, then…..one, two, three….."

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air. Harry was too quick for Neville, whose wand went spinning out of his hand, hit the ceiling in a shower of sparks and landed with a clatter on top of a bookshelf, from which Harry retrieved it with a Summoning Charm. Glancing around, he thought he had been right to suggest they practise the basics first; there was a lot of shoddy spellwork going on; many people were not succeeding in Disarming their opponents at all, but merely causing them to jump backwards a few paces or wince as their feeble spell whooshed over them.

"Expelliarmus!" said Neville, and Harry, caught unawares, felt his wand fly out of his hand.

"I DID IT!" said Neville gleefully. "I've never done it before-I DID IT!"

"Good one!" said Harry encouragingly. He looked at his fellow Gryffindor speculatively, there must be some reason for Neville's seeming ineptitude when it came to magic for occasionally power showed and Harry wanted to help him harness it. Realising he was supposed to be teaching he turned to Neville.

"Listen, Neville, can you take it in turns to practise with Ron and Hermione for a couple of minutes so I can walk around and see how the rest are doing?"

Harry walked around the other pairs, trying to correct those who were doing the spell wrong. Ginny was teamed with Michael Corner; she was doing very well, whereas Michael was either very bad or unwilling to jinx her. Ernie Macmillan was flourishing his wand unnecessarily, giving his partner time to get in under his guard; the Creevey brothers were enthusiastic but erratic and mainly responsible for all the books leaping off the shelves around them; Luna Lovegood was similarly patchy, occasionally sending Justin Finch-Fletchleys wand spinning out of his hand, at other times merely causing his hair to stand on end.

"OK, stop!" Harry shouted. "Stop. STOP!"

I need a whistle, he thought, and immediately spotted one lying on top of the nearest row of books. He caught it up and blew hard. Everyone lowered their wands.

"That wasn't bad," said Harry, "but there's definite room for improvement."

He moved off around the room again, stopping here and there to make suggestions. Slowly, the general performance improved.

"Hey, Harry," Hermione called from the other end of the room, "have you checked the time?"

He looked down at his watch and was shocked to see it was already ten past nine, which meant they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out of bounds. He blew his whistle; everybody stopped shouting "Expelliarmus" and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.

"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.

Angelina, however, said quickly, "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."

Slowly in twos and threes everyone drifted back to their common rooms, Harry following after making sure that nobody would be able to get into the room through any of the secret passages that led into the common rooms. He didn't want people in here when he wasn't in.

As he went down the passageway to the Gryffindor common room he considered how the first session had went. It wasn't too bad he reflected, sure it was nothing like he wanted but then an army took time to build. And let's make no mistake, despite all Harry said, that was exactly what he was building.

* * *

**AN: There is the second chapter of this one. At this point I would like to again draw people's attention to my new story a crossover between Harry Potter and the Hunger Games series. All other of my stories should have an update this weekend and I mean all.**

**Tell me what you think, where you want this to go. I plan on taking it slow, is that right?**

**Please review**

**T. T. Horn**


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